Evidently, donning a funny hat and asking "would you like fries with that" seems to be a far more noble profession than working at one of the only remaining video game retailers left in the country.
A lot of people hate the idea of even shopping there, but now, according to 24/7 Wall Street, GameStop is also a pretty crappy place to work too, coming in tenth out of 11 on a list of "America's Worst Companies to Work For."
According to reviews posted in the article, it seems as though employees have the same complaint about the business as a lot of their consumers. "Priority is placed on sales instead of games and customers, pushing people to pre-order games can place them in a situation where they spend good money on a bad game with no possibility of a refund, business' models place customers at a disadvantage."
But what about the fringe benefits, like an employee discount? Well, as another employee says, it makes little difference. "Your employee discount is also garbage, especially if you live at a high tax zone like NYC (nearly 9% tax). It's a 15% discount on all products. For example, a $59.99 new game would become $55.49 after the employee discount and tax application. So don't think you're working here for the employee discount, there isn't really one. 'Oh, but you can buy Power Up Pro at $15 a year and you can get an additional $10 off for a total of $25 off.' I don't buy used games because that doesn't support the publishers, so the PUP cards are irrelevant."
24/7 Wall St. based their list on an analysis provided by glassdoor.com, a web site providing "an inside look at jobs and companies" through information straight from the horse's mouth - the employees themselves. 24/7 Wall St. identified the worst companies to work for based on an analysis of company reviews by Glassdoor, then considered the companies with 300 reviews or more. The companies that scored 2.7 or less ultimately made up the list. Of those 19, 11 were traded publicly, and there you have their list.
So is there any benefit to taking a job at GameStop? Among the numerous complaints, there was one pro review I found helping to clear the good name of GameStop.
That pro among so many cons? "You get paid on time."